December 2013

The Meta Game of Horse Breeding #WurmOnline

stargrace December 31, 2013 No Comments

One of my favorite things to do in Wurm Online is breed animals. Not just the regular sort that are actually useful (horses for riding and pulling carts) but all sorts of animals that I find in the wild. This is made infinitely easier with the help of a Fo priest who has access to charm. In order to breed animals successfully I find it helps to have them in a 2×2 pen paired up with their partner. It’s easy to check traits, and less worry about disease (overcrowding can be an issue). There are 19 different traits that animals can have when bred, first generation creatures do not come with traits.

• 0 skill: Horse’s color is considered a trait. (Although it DOES NOT go against the trait limit.)
• 20 (10.56) skill: “It will fight fiercely.” (Higher fighting skill?)
• 21 (11.12) skill: “It has fleeter movement than normal.” (Minor speed boost.)
• 22 (11.68) skill: “It is a tough bugger.” (Withstands more damage.)
• 23 (12.25) skill: “It has a strong body.” (Bonus to maintaining top speed.)
• 24 (12.82) skill: “It has lightning movement.” (Randomly increases speed for a short duration.)
• 25 (13.40) skill: “It can carry more than average.” (Less penalty to speed due to high load.)
• 26 (13.98) skill: “It has very strong leg muscles.” (Less penalty to speed due to slope? Does not currently do this.)
• 27 (14.56) skill: “It has keen senses.” (Increased aggression range, or possibly harder to tame?)
• 28 (15.15) skill: “It has malformed hindlegs.” (Minor speed penalty)*
• 29 (15.74) skill: “The legs are of different length.” (Major speed penalty)*
• 30 (16.33) skill: “It seems overly aggressive.” (Goes into frenzy when attacked)*
• 31 (16.93) skill: “It looks very unmotivated.” (Seldom uses speed boosts?)*
• 32 (17.54) skill: “It is unusually strong willed.” (Will stop being led at random.)*
• 33 (18.15) skill: “It has some illness.” (Body strength will slowly reduce over time, which will eventually making the animal unrideable. Note: Genesis will cause it to slowly regain strength up to it’s old level.)*
• 34 (18.76) skill: “It looks constantly hungry.” (is twice as fast to become hungry again.)*
• 39 (21.90) skill: “It looks feeble and unhealthy.” (Prone to catching a disease.)*
• 40 (22.54) skill: “It looks unusually strong and healthy.” (Has a higher resistance to disease.)
• 41 (23.19) skill: “It has a certain spark in its eyes.” (Affects breeding? Will not die of old age? Disproved, see talk.)

Ideally players want horses that have the 5 ‘speed’ traits. These horses sell for more than your average creature, and are highly sought after. You need to work your animal husbandry skill in order to see these traits, and I use a very amazing program called Wurm Assistant that helps me keep my herds under control. Inbreeding horses is a bad thing and can leave them with negative traits – but – since I have a Fo priest I can cure these negative traits with a quick genesis cast. Along with the four horses pictured above, I now have three unicorns (one a champion that I have had absolutely zero luck getting to breed), three deer (I used to have two, one just gave birth), a cow, and a hen. I’m hoping to find a bull wandering around my island, since the creatures don’t swim and they can’t be transported I have no way of obtaining one.

All in all, I think I’m off to a pretty good start. As always, happy gaming no matter where you find yourself!

Off to Visit Santa #WurmOnline

stargrace December 29, 2013 No Comments

After experiencing a few issues with my web site early last week, I lost two weeks worth of posts and then didn’t really feel like writing. I’m hoping to make up for that over the next little while though. Just because I haven’t written doesn’t mean that I haven’t been playing games!

Most of my time has been spent between Wurm Online and World of Warcraft, two incredibly different games. Wurm is as sandbox as they come, and WoW is a theme park. Still, I love both of them. In Wurm I continue to play on the Pristine server. Actually I decided since I have been neglecting my Exodus deed I would move the token and downsize the place. It used to be approximately 60×60 tiles, and is now 18×18. This lowered my rent a considerable amount and since I had a lot of upkeep pre-paid, I earned all of it back. I shifted that coin over to Pristine, and went shopping, hence the screenshot above.

The market is in the center of the zone and I live along the very south coast. I swam from my island to the mainland, and then proceeded to walk to Blossom. Since the character I decided to go with is a priest of Fo I had no aggro from any creatures along the way. The walk was relatively painless and it was neat to see how the land has changed and been shaped over time. I crossed many deserted deeds, and fought back the urge to pillage. I didn’t want anything to weigh me down until after I got to the market.

Once there, I took out some coin from the token and then browsed through all of the merchants. I picked up three 70 quality weapons. A two-handed sword for the Fo priest, a long sword for my main character, and a large maul for bashing. I also picked up a full set of chain armor for 10 copper per piece. It’s only 60 quality but that was more than enough for me. A copper lantern caught my eye, 70 quality which means the light is quite bright. A 60 ql toolbelt was added to my quickly growing pile of items. I saw a miss-priced emerald and picked that up. I debated getting a new carving knife for working on my fine carpentry skill but decided against it for now. Oh, and I also purchased a shield.

Instead of walking all of the way home I decided to use some of my karma to gate. It costs 1,000 karma but it ports you right back into your town. I had never used the skill before but it worked flawlessly and I was pleased. The coloured smoke you see off in the distance is Santa who stands at Blossom (or stood I suppose, he’s gone now) feeding players delicious holiday food and rewarding premium players with a 99 ql snowball lantern (our gift this year). It was quite a walk, but  really had a great time. No surprise there, I adore exploring in Wurm.

The deed is coming along very well, expect a post about those details to follow! As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself.